1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus, a service system, and a method of installing an Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi)-based service. More particularly, aspects of the present invention relate to an image forming apparatus to install an OSGi bundle in an OSGi framework, a service system, and a method of installing an OSGi-based service.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rapid development of digital technologies and growth of the Internet have enabled users to be provided with various services through digital home construction. Digital home technologies provide more varied services using external communication infrastructures relative to home networking technologies for sharing over high speed Internet connections, file sharing, and sharing between neighboring apparatuses.
Such digital home technologies provide a platform standard for various services, such as an Open Services Gateway initiative (OSGi) service platform operated using a Java virtual machine (JVM). The OSGi service platform provides basic services using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), service management, and/or log services on an OSGi framework. Service providers provide services by distributing their respective services using the OSGi framework in the form of bundles. The OSGi service platform supports conventional home network technologies (such as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), Jini, and/or Home Audio Video interoperability (HAVi)) so that the OSGi service platform can be applied in various environments (such as a set-top box (STB) of a television (TV), a cable modem, an alarm system, and/or an energy management system).
An application programming interface (API) of the OSGi service platform is written in Java, so the API can run on various platforms having diverse operating systems (OS). However, service providers write applications to provide services on the OSGi framework in Java, and provide a user with a single file containing a plurality of class files (such as Java Archive (JAR) files), to distribute services in the form of bundles, which may cause an inconvenience.
Additionally, in order to distribute services to a service providing apparatus, the service providing apparatus requires sufficient storage space on which JAR files may be stored, so there is a limitation in the number of services that may be provided to the service providing apparatus.